HKB
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Often appears with: the passions and the emotions · tacitus quotation · justice as a virtue · ingratitude · greed and the love of money
Usually: argument (1) · ambition and its cost (1) · injustice endured (1) · indignation (1)
“For a prince or people when they have sent forth a captain on some important enterprise, by succeeding in which he earns a great name, are bound in return to reward him; and if moved by avarice and covetousness they fail to do so, or if, instead of rewarding, they wrong and disgrace him, they commit an error which is not only without excuse, but brings with it undying infamy.” Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius · insight
He compares ingratitude by princes and peoples, saying its roots are either avarice or suspicion; punishing or withholding rewards from a captain who gained victories for them brings “undying infamy.”
In connection with what has been said above, it seems proper to consider whether more notable instances of ingratitude are supplied by princes or peoples. And, to go to the root of the matter, I affirm that this vice of ingratitude has its source either in avarice or in suspicion. For a prince or people when they have sent forth a captain on some important enterprise, by succeeding in which he earns a great name, are…